UK pharma news, including how new investment in GSK stands to reshape the country’s iconic pharma giant; CDMO Sterling’s latest acquisition; and calls for a national registry to capture company payments to clinicians and patient support groups.

 

The 30 fastest-growing unquoted pharma companies in the UK (Consultancy.uk)

https://www.consultancy.uk/news/27223/the-30-fastest-growing-unquoted-pharma-companies-in-the-uk

In a new market assessment, experts from corporate finance advisory firm Alantra have ranked the UK’s fastest-growing, privately-owned pharma and pharma service companies. Meet the top 30 growth jewels in the country’s pharmaceuticals industry.

 

Hedge fund Elliott builds multibillion-pound stake in GlaxoSmithKline (FT)

https://www.ft.com/content/c1d64eff-7cfb-4f73-9a48-45857640f9a9

Infamous activist investor Elliott Management has snapped up a multi-billion pound stake in GlaxoSmithKline as it prepares to launch a shake-up of the drug maker; Glaxo’s shares jumped 5.7% after the news.

 

CDMO Sterling, scaling up for the oncology arms race, acquires U.K. antibody-drug conjugate specialist (Fierce Pharma)

https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/cdmo-sterling-looking-to-tap-into-oncological-arms-race-acquires-u-k-antibody-drug

Just months after plugging a “significant investment” into U.K.-based antibody-drug conjugate specialist ADC Biotechnology, Sterling Pharma Solutions has made good on its promise to acquire the company.

 

The Brexit deal; shot in the arm or kick in the teeth for the pharma sector? (pharmaphorum)

https://pharmaphorum.com/market-access-2/the-brexit-deal-for-the-pharma-sector/

The UK Government and EU Commission trumpeted their Brexit trade deal, struck at the end of December, as ‘comprehensive’, the ‘biggest yet’.  But a closer inspection of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) renders these statements largely illusory for the pharma sector. While pharma companies grapple with the effects of Brexit, there are undoubtedly a number of ways that the TCA benefits the sector, while leaving significant issues unanswered.

 

Set up national registry to capture pharma company payments to clinicians and patient support groups (BMJ)

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/b-sun041521.php

A national registry to capture all pharma/medical device industry payments and other benefits made to all clinicians, healthcare organisations and patient support groups should be set up as a matter of urgency in the UK, insists an editorial in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (dtb).

 

UK launches human challenge trial on COVID-19 reinfection (BioPharma Reporter)

https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/article/2021/04/19/uk-launches-human-challenge-trial-on-covid-19-reinfection

A human challenge trial has been launched in the UK to investigate what happens when people who have already had COVID-19 are infected a second time.

 

AstraZeneca vaccine – was it really worth it? (BBC)

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56570364

“It’s appalling the way AstraZeneca has been treated. I wouldn’t blame them if they were thoroughly fed up and decided to bow out of the Covid vaccine business.” That was the view from one of the biggest institutional investors in the UK.